Home Decorating: Artwork and a Cheap Brass Chandelier Fix

We're renters—at least for now. When we moved into our apartment, we noticed that the property owners seem to be stuck in the "brass age." You know . . . brass chandelier in the dining room, old-style brass folding fireplace screen, brass hardware, etc. Nice. Now, maybe I'm being a bit judgemental of you brass-lovers out there, but it's just not our style. 

We're planning on moving from this apartment in the next few months or so, but I've been itchy for a crafty/creative project. Our little one was born just after we moved in, so we never painted or did anything to really make it our own. Something had to be done.

Step 1 was to add some artwork to our bedroom, above our bed. You can see what I did here.  I did this VERY cheaply by using some black frames and cream mattes that we already had, taking my own pictures, and customizing them using Adobe Photoshop (available for WIndows or Mac). The entire project only cost me around $27—the cost of developing the prints (I had several done at the same time). 

Step 2 was to tackle our very shiny brass dining room chandelier (right). It's not a great before picture, because I had to crop it out from the background of an older picture. I forgot to take an actual before pic. Oh well. I'm an HGTV-lover, and I've seen them paint chandeliers countless times on Design on a Dime. It's such a cheap fix, so I had to try it. I also wanted to add some lamp shades, to give it a more elegant feel. I found a set of 6 (I only needed 5) in mint condition at one of our local Goodwills for $1.50 . . . for the set! I bought a can of black satin-finish spray paint from Wal-Mart for around $3. All I needed was my husband's help to prep the area. We're not real handy sort of people, so we opted for NOT taking the lamp down, and left it on the ceiling for the actual painting. I know, I know . . . some of you are wincing right now. But, I mean it—we're not handy! So after taping everything off and rigging up a paint screen to keep paint off the ceiling and walls, we went to work. It took a few coats, but after a couple of hours, our work was done and NO MORE BRASS!! So exciting! With my $1.50 lampshades, and my $3 can of paint, here's the end result:

Ain't she a beaut?! It's a thousand times better, now. Have I inspired you? I hope so! For just under $6, we have a brand new lamp that fits our style and is amazingly less obtrusive than that old brass thing.

And for a grand total of under $35, we have really attractive artwork in our bedroom, and a totally new, updated, classy feel in our dining room.

Artwork for bedroom.................$27
Lampshades (set of 6)................$1.50
Spray paint.................................$3

TOTAL......................................$31.50